FoxNews: Official: Suspect Arrested in Times Square Bomb Plot
FOXNews.com
Updated May 04, 2010
The man was identified as Shahzad Faisal, 30, of Connecticut, according to NBC News
Suspect Arrested in Times Square Bomb Plot
FOXNews.com
- May 04, 2010
Authorities arrest Shahzad Faisal in connection with Saturday's failed Times Square car bombing as he was trying to leave the country at JFK Airport, officials told Fox News.
BREAKING NEWS -- Federal authorities arrested a U.S. citizen of Pakistani descent Monday night at New York's JFK International Airport in connection with Saturday's attempted Times Square car bombing, officials told Fox News.
The man was identified as Shahzad Faisal, 30, of Connecticut, U.S. officials said on condition of anonymity. They said Faisal was attempting to flee the country at the time of his arrest.
Police had interviewed the registered owner of the bomb-laden sports-utility vehicle. They said he was not a suspect, but he recently sold the dark-colored 1993 Nissan Pathfinder on Craigslist to another individual, whom the Associated Press reported was a Pakistani-American.
The bomb scare forced the evacuation of Times Square on a busy Saturday night, as police used a robot to break into the smoking SUV and diffuse the makeshift explosive, which was made from everyday items, such as propane tanks and firecrackers.
The vehicle identification number had been removed from the Pathfinder's dashboard, but it was stamped on the engine and axle, and investigators used it to find the owner of record. CBS News reported that the owner told investigators he recently sold the vehicle for $1,300 to someone who looked "Middle Eastern" or "Hispanic." The buyer reportedly paid in $100 bills.
One Obama administration official, while acknowledging the crudeness of the bomb, cautioned, "Do not necessarily assume that the plot behind it was not sophisticated."
Sources told Fox News that investigators were focusing on the similarities between the failed attack in New York City and both the 2007 attack on Glasgow's airport in Scotland and the attempted bombing of a London nightclub the same year. Propane gas and gasoline were used in all three incidents.
On Monday, the White House for the first time clearly defined the attempted attack as an act of terrorism, without saying whether it was the work of a foreign or domestic plot.
"I think anybody that has the type of material that they had in a car in Times Square, I would say that that was intended to terrorize. Absolutely," White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said when asked by Fox News how the White House would categorize the incident. "And I would say that whoever did that would be categorized as a terrorist. Yes."
Obama administration officials previously stopped short of declaring the incident terrorism.
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